preserving the dead

[Spider-Man v2.0]

i hate haveing to bury my babies in the ground. and with some very larg and impresive emps i dont want to give them up like that.
i thot of pining or mounting but thay still will decay. so i wanted to put them into jars with some chemicals to prevent decay and keep them as lively looking as posible.
i was thinking of flormodahide*sp* or posibly rubing alchole.
what whould u out thear sugest and whear chould i find it??
i got a realy nive 7-8 inch emp that i cant just let rot in the ground. hes so huge in size not just length. hes realy realy heavy too.

 

[Nikos]

I'm a fan of "recycling" meaning: feed the dead to the live ones

but for the ones you just cant feed them off, clear resin makes them wonderful paperweights.

If you insist keeping them in liquid, do a search in the scorpion forum and you'll find the types used

 

[Nerri1029]

Denatured Ethanol ( available at hardware stores ) gets my vote.

it DOESN'T change the color at all.

However I'd try to inject some into the Scorp as well to arrest decay or rotting on the inside.

GOOD luck

 

[Ganoderma]

Most people will fix it in formail (10% formaldahyde sp??? and water). after that keep in ethanol. i have had a scorpion preserved in straight formaldahyde (40%?) for over 8 years. the only reason i keep it in that however is because i have no interest in coming into contact with that stuff. it is very nasty! wear respirator and gloves. alcohol will work on its own but you will need to replace it a few times as it will get watered down with such a large specimen. perhaps start with 95% then switch to 70%.

dried scorpions should not decay if properly prepared. i always fix them as above and let dry in teh sahde on a HOT day. i keep all my dried inverts in a more or less sealed container with dessicant and moth balls. this keeps them dry and pest free. like said you should probably inject it into the scorp...they are pretty large.

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Thast Formalin I have two black widows sitting in it right now waiting for me to get my butt in gear and mount them in resin. Its what we use to preseve things in the vet business.

 

[ErikH]

Formalin or ethyl alcohol will work. Either should be emptied and replaced once or twice with large specimens. A warning about formalin though, besides being a lung irritant and a carcinogen, it has a tendency to soften the exoskeleton of inverts, which is why most commericial outfits use ethanol on inverts.

 

[Ganoderma]

yes it is kind of hard on them. i only use it to fix them, i always preserve it in soem type of alcohol. generally i only let the sit in it for a day or 2. maybe a few with a large scorp.